The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-03-26
THE HINDU WIDOW.

UfceNUfQn Las VI AtDtetccHtf CeHtW4.
In the northwest provinces of India
widows suffer treatment far worse than that
to which their sisters in Bengal are subject
ed. The heartless customs are strictly en-
forced among all the castles, but as you as
cend to the more well-to-do and richer
classes they assume more relentless and
virulent form. A widow among the re-
spectacle classes in this land of rigid Hin
duism is considered and treated as some
thing worse than the meanest criminal In
the world. Directly after the death of her
husband she is Stunned by her relations
and friends, and, as finer breath or touch
would spread among them the contagion of
her crime-the natural death Of her hus-
band-they do not even approach near her,
but send the BARRIERS wives, who play an
important part in all Hindu ceremonies, to
divest her of all her ornaments and fneries.
These mercenary persons often proceed to
their task in a most heartrending manner;
but that is the command of their mistress
ses, and they must obey it. No sooner has
the husband breathed his last than these
hirelings rush at their victim and snatch off
her ear rings and nose rings.
At the funeral the relatives of the de-
ceased, male and female, accompany the
corpse, and all, rich or poor, must go on
foot. The men lead the procession, the
women, with thick wells drawn over their
faces, following, and last comes the widow,
preceded by the BARRIERS wives, who take
great care to keep her at respectable dis
lance from the main body of the mourners,
shouting out as they go along to warn the
other people Of the approach of the detest-
ed widow Thus she is dragged along,
wild with grief, aghast at the indignities
heaped upon her, her eyes full of bitter
tears, MORALLY afraid to utter a single syl-
liable, lest she should receive more heart
less treatment from the very people who,
but few days ago, held her so dearly.
Soon after the party reaches the river or
tank, near which the cremation takes place,
the widow is pushed into the water, and
there she has to remain in her wet clothes,
away from all the other people, until the
dead body has been burned to ashss-a
process occupying in India several hours
and the whole company have performed
their necessary additions. And when all
of them have started for home the widow
is led along by the BARRIERS wives, her
clothes soaking wet and she mutely bearing
the rudeness of her barbarous guides. The
custom is rigidly observed in all seasons
and all circumstances. It matters not
whether she has been laid up with fever OF
suffering from consumption, whether she is
scorched by the burning rays of the mid
day sun of Indian summer or frozen by the
piercing winds blowing from the Himalayas
in winter, the widow must be dragged with
the funeral party in the preceding manner.
There is no pity for her.
THE BUTT OF VILE ABUSE.
When she returns home she must sit or
lie in corner on the bare ground in the
same clothes, wet or dry, which she wore
at the time of her husbands death. There
she has to pass her days of mourning un-
attended by anybody, except perhaps by
one Of the BARRIERS wives, who, if not well
paid, does not care to give her kind Offices
to a widow. She must be conter 18th
only one very scanty and-plain meal day,
and must often completely abstain from all
food and drink. Her nearest and dearest
relations and friends shun her presence as
if she were an accursed viper, and if ever
they approach near her it is only to add
fresh indignities to her miserable lot. They
make her the butt of the yilest abuses and
the most singing aspersions.
The thirteenth day after the funeral the
widow is allowed, after necessary additions,
to change the clothes that she has worn
since her husbands death. Her relatives
then make her presents of few rupees,
which are intended as provision for life
for her, bat which are often taken posses
sion Of and spent in quite different way
by some male relative. The Brahmans,
who have been continually demanding
money from her ever since she became a
widow, come again at this stage, and make
fresh requests for money for services which
they have not rendered. Her head, which
was covered with black, glossy hair only
the other day, is completely shaved, and
the Brahmans and the BARRIERS wives have
to be paid their gratuities for this cruel
ceremony But even then the wretched
woman has no respite.
Six weeks after her husband death the
widow has again to wear those clothes-the
very sight of which sends shudder
through her Utmost soul-whieh she had
put on for the first thirteen days. She can
change them only on one condition, that
she must go on pilgrimage to the holy
river Ganges (Which is often impossible on
account of distance and perform ablutions
in its purifying waters. After that she has
to wear the plainest cotton dress and live
on the simplest single meal day, only va
ried with frequent fasts.
HER LIFELONG MOURNING.
The year of mourning, or rather the first
year of her lifelong mourning, thus. slowly
passes away. If she happens to live with
her own parents, and if they be tenderly
disposed towards her. her miseries are a
little lightened by their solicitude for her
health and comfort. She is sometimes al
bowed to wear her ornaments again.
The widow who has no parents has to
pass her whole life under the roof Of her
iather-in-law, and then she knows no com
fort whatever. She has to meet from her
late husbands relations only unkind looks
and unjust reproaches She has to work
like slave, and for the reward of all her
drudgery she only receives hatred and alb
horrence from her mother-in-law and sisters
in-law. If there is any disorder in the do
nestle arrangements of the family the
widow is blamed and cursed for it. Among
Hindus women cannot inherit any paternal
property, and if a widow is left any property
by her husband she cannot call it her own.
All her wealth belongs to her son, if she
has any, and if she has nobody to inherit it
she is made to adopt an heir and give him
all her property directly he comes of age,
and herself live on bare allowance granted
BY him. Even death cannot save widow
from indignities. For when wife dies
she is burnt in the clothes she had on, but
a widows corpse is covered with coarse
white cloth, and there is little ceremony at
her funeral.
Only the Hindu widows know Their own
sufFerings; it is perfectly impossible for any
other lnortalsor even the angels, to re-